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Six Nations: Jeremy Guscott on England v Scotland

Venue: Twickenham Date: Sunday, 13 March Kick-off: 1500 GMTCoverage: Watch live on BBC One from 1430, and on the Red Button and online; listen on BBC Radio 5 live; text commentary online and on mobiles

A frustrated Andy Robinson has seen his side fail to deliver so far in the Six Nations but with players such as Kelly Brown, Richie Gray, Alastair Kellock and Sean Lamont, if they can cut out the errors they could cause England problems

By Jeremy Guscott
Former England and Lions centre

Both history and current form are resolutely against Scotland, and it would be a huge upset if they were to win at Twickenham on Sunday. But only the foolish would dismiss their chances entirely.

Scotland go into the Calcutta Cup game knowing they have not won in south-west London for 28 years, and having lost all three outings in the 2011 Six Nations.

They may be short of confidence, but I was once part of an England team that won in Cardiff in 1991 for the first time in 27 years. Did the run of defeats worry me going into the game? No, it didn't, and that is the mindset Scotland have to travel with on Sunday.

Coach Andy Robinson - making his first return to Twickenham in a professional capacity since losing his job as England boss in 2006 - must be intensely frustrated, because going into the tournament the Scots looked set to do well.

They have created chances and played reasonably well in their three games, but they have not been accurate in their basic skills and that is what has cost them.

Scotland have got some good players - Richie Gray has been one of the sensations of the Six Nations - and it can be very difficult to understand why a team does not perform. You find yourself at a loss as to why talented players have not stepped up; once again they made the sort of unforced errors you wouldn't expect from international players. After that defeat Robinson decided he had to change things around.

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His thought process would have been, "I'm talking and they're listening, and when we're practising they're getting everything right, but they go out and they don't perform".

No-one makes mistakes on purpose but a lack of concentration or a lack of intensity can lead to a mistake which costs your team all its momentum and positivity.

You might not always see heads drop but internally it's like you've had your gizzards ripped out.

If it happens once it's not too bad but when you've got seven, eight, nine unforced errors, it has to play on your mind.

Scotland have made four changes for the Twickenham trip but it is Robinson's decision not to make a change at fly-half that is possibly the most notable.

In 2005, during his reign as England coach, Robinson picked the then 18-year-old Mathew Tait to face Wales.

It was an unhappy debut for the teenager and he was immediately discarded, which cannot have done much for his confidence.

I think Robinson might have learned from that because although Ruaridh Jackson didn't have his best game against Ireland, he has been retained at 10.

Jackson was nowhere near as poor as Tait was in Cardiff, but if you pick someone you have to believe in them.

Recalled flanker Nathan Hines will add some ballast and go-forward on the blind-side, while outside centre Joe Ansbro would have played if fit last time out.

Sean Lamont stays at inside centre - he has been one of Scotland's best players so needs to be in the side. I would prefer him at outside centre but Ansbro's got that slot and he's definitely a 13.

They have got good players all through the team - John Barclay and Kelly Brown are both decent back-rowers and Alastair Kellock puts himself about in the second row.

Scotland have done well in some phases of the game, notably the line-outs, but they have struggled to complete their tackles this Six Nations, missing 33 to England's 11 over the course of the Championship.

They also struggle to win much turnover ball and that blunts their attack - they have only scored three tries and conceded nine, while England have scored 11 and conceded two.

For England it's a case of more of the same on Saturday, and the greatest difficulty they face is that with every win the expectation rises dramatically.

I hope half-backs Ben Youngs and Toby Flood played their worst games against France, when it didn't always click.

I'd also like England to bring centres Shontayne Hape and Mike Tindall into play more, certainly from first phase, and get the ball in Hape's hands more in other phases.

England will be looking for more of the same and to keep improving, while Scotland need to be accurate and cut out the errors - they have got good enough players, they are just not playing well enough.

The great thing about sport is that the big upset is just around the corner, so I'm not going to say categorically England will win.

If Scotland are accurate in their play on Sunday, England are going to be faced with more problems to solve than many home fans might anticipate.

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